O Canada!

My girlfriend, Candy, and I took a trip to Canada this summer, in June 2016.  I planned the itinerary so that we'll stop first in New York City to see my son's family, Shawn, Ella and Esme, who is almost 1-year old.  After about 4 days in NYC, we flew to Toronto, where my close high-school friend, Herman and his family (Doreen and Joshua) lives.  They migrated to Canada in 1988 and love the country.  It's what makes Canada a wonderful country.  They truly appreciate their diversity, because most of them are immigrants from somewhere.  Unlike America, where the right-wing conservatives are threatening to build walls to keep out immigrants, Canada is opening its doors to refugees:
Canada Welcomes Refugees

Our first stop, after Herman picked us up at the airport, was having a light lunch at a won-ton noodle restaurant in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, where many Asian immigrants live.  This is a small restaurant that serves only won-ton noodles, beef-tendon noodles, and dumplings.  That's it.  A small menu with only about a dozen variations of the main items.  It's similar to the type of won-ton noodle stands or restaurants that you find in Hong Kong, Malaysia, or Singapore.  It's a thriving business because at 3 pm in the afternoon, it was still a busy restaurant.  I mentioned this because it goes to show how immigrants are able to retain their originality while thriving in Canada.

Herman took us to Niagara Falls the first day.  It's only about an hour drive and it's a must for anyone visiting Toronto, if you have never been there.  It's a sight to be seen.  You have the American and the Canadian Falls, not far from each other.  We were on the Canadian side and we could see both falls.

Panoramic View of American Falls (left) and Canadian Falls (right)

We took a boat similar to the one below to as close to the Falls as possible.  It was quite an experience, being able to feel the power of the water rushing down.

Maid of the Mist boat that goes to the bottom of the Falls

See how close the boat got to the Falls

A few miles from Niagara Falls is the town of Niagara-By-The-Lake.  It's a small touristy town, with many shops and hotels catering to the tourists.  It's in the middle of an ice-wine industry.  There are many ice-wine vineyards in the area.  Ice-wine is different from regular wine in that the grapes are harvested in the middle of winter, when they are frozen.  The wine is sweet and very tasty.  Here is more about ice-wine:   Ice Wine

The next day we took a tour of the Roadtrek Factory in Kitchener, Ontario, about 1 1/2 hours from Toronto.  Roadtrek manufactures Class B motorhomes built on a Mercedes Benz van chassis.  It has a  good reputation for quality.  I am in the market for a Class B motorhome so that I can travel somewhere outside of Phoenix during the hot summer months.  It comes equipped with beds, shower, toilet, galley, etc, pretty much self-contained.  Traveling around the US and Canada is a beautiful experience, especially in your own motorhome.

The next couple of days were spent visiting the different neighborhoods in Toronto.  First, we went to Markham and Scarborough, where there are big Asian communities, especially from Hong Kong.  You can almost get by here by just speaking Mandarin or Cantonese.  There are several big malls that are almost all Asian businesses.  It's like a mini-Hong Kong.  I understand many of them migrated to Toronto and Vancouver just before Hong Kong was returned to China by the British.  Feeling insecure with the Chinese government encouraged many of them to leave.

On another day we took a walk around downtown Toronto.  It's a lively area with many shops and restaurants.  The old Chinatown is in downtown and we walked around there as well.  We went up to CN Tower, where we could see most of Toronto.

Toronto Blue Jays' Stadium, seen from CN Tower 

Part of downtown and Lake Toronto, from CN Tower

City Hall.  The pond in front of the sign becomes frozen in the winter and becomes a ice-skating rink.

One memorable thing we did to excess was EAT.  There are so many good restaurants, especially Asian, that we ate out every night.  Out of five nights, we went to three buffet dinners - a Japanese, Italian and Chinese restaurants.  We almost had to crawl out of those restaurants!

Our last dinner in Toronto was at a Chinese seafood restaurant, specializing in King crabs and lobsters.  Around the inside of the restaurant, are two levels of fish tanks, one level holding lobsters and the other level of tanks holding King crabs.  Reservations have to be made at least 1 week in advance.  You are allocated only 2 hours to finish your meal.  The crabs and lobsters are cooked Chinese style.  Needless to say, they were delicious.

Toronto is a wonderful city.  What impressed me is the diversity of the population, the friendliness of the people, and as you drive around the city, you can see the robustness of its economy.  There are many Canadian, American and other International companies, along the freeway.  Thanks to Herman, Doreen and Josh's hospitality, our stay there was a most memorable one.